Red Sox at Mariners lineup: Baseball’s back, it’s real, and it’s spectacular

Hello. The Red Sox play the Mariners today. Chris Sale will pitch for the Red Sox and he is very good. Marco Gonzales is probably a lovely human but he is less good at pitching than Chris Sale, so the Sox should probably but it’s baseball so you never know. At least it’s real baseball. I wrote a column earlier today with more Opening Day thoughts so you should read them if you wish this was substantially longer. If you prefer to read about the Mariners in general, check out Matt’s series preview. If you want to know about Seattle, let me know. I got a guy.

I also got the lineups. These were easy because the Sox posted them last night because Opening Day is good. There are two notable changes from last year, First, Andrew Benintendi bats leadoff in front of Mookie Betts, a reversal from the bulk of 2018, the realization of a move Alex Cora announced in the offseason. The other one is spicier: Big Boy Rafael Devers is hacking at the third spot, followed by J.D. Martinez. It’s a beautiful sight. The rest is standard-issue stuff and I could take you through it or you could just read it below. Baseball!!11!!!

First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM ET.